THE CULTURE OF FLUE-CURED TOBACCO. 19 
yards. Long poles or skids are laid along the ground at intervals of 
about 4 feet. Across the ends of these skids on the upper side of the 
bed, brush and wood is piled about 4 feet wide and 3 feet high. This 
pile is set on fire in several places. With considerable attention it 
will generally burn down sufficiently in about a half hour. The 
embers are then pulled down with hoes or hooks with long handles 
to the adjacent strip 4 or 5 feet wide just below. The fires are 
renewed by piling on more wood and brush and allowed to burn 
down for another half hour, or until the soil beneath seems well 
heated and dried out to a depth of about 3 inches. This process is 
repeated until the whole bed is gone over. 
A spell of dry weather-when the ground is free from frost should 
be chosen for burning. If the soil is wet, it will take much more heat 
to burn with the same efficiency because of the increased amount of 
water to be evaporated, and in some cases the physical condition of 
the soil might be injured by burning when the soil is too wet. The 
bed may be burned at any suitable time during January or February, 
er even as.late as the middle of March in the western part of the 
Old Belt section. The burning of the soil puts it into good tilth, and 
generally it can be worked up and sowed to best advantage at that 
time. A disadvantage is the danger of washing the seeds away by 
heavy rains or that they may sprout prematurely during protracted 
warm spells in the winter months and be killed by later cold snaps. 
This latter incident, however, is a rare exception, and generally the 
seed will not come up till about the last of February or first of March 
in the New Belt section or about the middle of March in the western 
part of the Old Belt. In fitting the bed after burning, or if fitted 
without burning, as is sometimes done on weed-free land, a single- 
shovel colter plow is of great service. After raking off the embers 
the bed should be gone over both ways with the single-shovel plow 
and then gone over several times with a drag harrow. This will 
minimize the amount of handwork required in fitting to a fine surface 
tilth. Fertilize liberally by raking in about 1 pound per square yard 
of some good fertilizer such as 3-8-3 or its equivalent. If the bed 
has been burned, the ashes will give enough potash, but phosphoric 
acid and ammonia will be required. Blood or cottonseed meal are 
good forms in which to apply ammonia at the time of seeding, but 
about the time the plants should come up a top-dressing of nitrate 
of soda, at the rate of about 5 pounds per 100 square yards, will start 
the plants to growing vigorously. Unless absolutely necessary, nitrate 
of soda should not be applied to a plant bed after the plants have 
attained much size, because it will force them into a late tender 
erowth at transplanting time and they will not be sure to live. 
A moderately heaping tablespoonful of good seed is enough to 
sow 100 square yards of bed. If too much is used the plants will be 
